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In
a lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the publisher
Junior Shooters and groups including the Second Amendment
Foundation argued that the law violated their free speech rights
under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office in a statement
said it would "take any and all action under the law to defend
California's commonsense gun laws."
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed the measure, AB 2571,
into law last week, citing the need for new laws "as the Supreme
Court rolls back important gun safety protections."
The legislation cleared the state's legislature days after the
conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court on June 23 ruled the
U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protects a person's right
to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.
Calls for new gun control laws have grown following a series of
mass shootings like the one at an elementary school in Uvalde,
Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed in May
and the killing of seven people at a parade in a Chicago suburb
on July 4.
Newsom's office cited advertising by a gun manufacturer named
Wee 1 Tactical of an AR-15 meant for kids as an example of why
the law was needed.
In Friday's lawsuit, Junior Sports Magazines Inc, the magazine
publisher, and groups also including the California Rifle &
Pistol Association said the legislation went too far in
abridging their speech rights.
They said it wrongly prohibits the promotion of lawful
firearm-related events and programs and impermissibly restricted
pro-gun organizations from promoting membership in their groups
in ways deemed "attractive to minors."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi and Jonathan Oatis)
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